Fernando Tatis Jr. hits first home run of 2025 season in his 56th game

Per CBS Sports, Fernando Tatis Jr. went deep for the first time in the 2025 season during his 56th game — ending what the outlet described as an unusually long power drought for a player who has averaged 24 home runs per year across his big-league career.

What happened

CBS Sports reported that Tatis reached game 56 of the 2025 season before recording his first home run, a stretch the outlet framed as a notable departure from his established production pattern. The career average of 24 home runs per year is the measuring stick CBS Sports applied: a player operating at that rate would ordinarily be expected to reach the first home run of a season well before the two-month mark on the schedule. Game 56 is the story, and CBS Sports treated it as such.

Why it matters

The 24-home-run-per-year figure cited by CBS Sports is not a projection — it is a career baseline, the kind of number that shapes lineup construction, informs how opposing pitchers work around a hitter, and anchors the offensive identity of a club that has built around Tatis as a central piece. When a player of that caliber goes that deep into a season without a home run, the ripple effects are real: pitchers can challenge him differently, the lineup around him absorbs more pressure, and the club's power production has to come from somewhere else.

For the Padres, who are currently navigating a Wild Card race rather than a division chase, the timing of Tatis's first home run carries operational weight. San Diego holds the top Wild Card spot, sitting above the cut line, and the margin between advancing and watching October from home is the kind of number that makes every bat in the lineup matter. A power hitter rediscovering his power — even in a single game — is not a trivial development in that context.

The numbers

CBS Sports puts the career average at 24 home runs per year. That is the baseline against which the 56-game wait gets measured and found to be an outlier.

The Padres' current record stands at 91-71 (.562), good for 2nd place in the NL West. The division gap is 9 games back, and per the verified standings data, San Diego has been eliminated from the division race — which makes the Wild Card the operative path. The club ranks 1st in Wild Card position, with a +3.0 margin relative to the cut line. They carry a two-game winning streak into the weekend.

Where the club stands

Second place in the NL West, eliminated from the division race, and holding the top Wild Card spot with a +3.0 cushion above the cut line — that is the operational picture for San Diego right now. The 91-71 record and the two-game winning streak suggest a club that is playing well enough to hold its position, but the Wild Card margin, while meaningful, is not the kind of lead that invites complacency.

The upcoming schedule provides a useful stress test. The Padres are at Nationals Park on Saturday, where Michael King is projected to start against Foster Griffin, per the verified schedule data. Sunday's series finale at the same venue has Griffin Canning projected against Zack Littell. The club then travels to Philadelphia for a Tuesday date at Citizens Bank Park, where Randy Vásquez is projected to face Aaron Nola.

That is a road trip that moves from Washington to Philadelphia — two different environments, and the kind of back-to-back series that will tell you something real about whether a team is locked in or simply riding a short run of good results.

What we don't know yet

CBS Sports reported the home run and the drought but did not specify the opponent, the pitcher, the game situation, or the ballpark. The outlet also did not detail what, if anything, changed mechanically or situationally to produce the result in game 56. The framing is descriptive rather than diagnostic: the drought existed, it ended, and the career average makes it notable. What caused the extended gap, and whether this home run signals a return to anything approaching that 24-per-year pace, is not addressed in the material.

What to watch

The natural follow-up question is whether game 56 represents a reset or a single data point. A player with a 24-per-year career average who went that long without going deep has a meaningful amount of ground to cover if that historical rate is going to hold for the season. Whether the power returns at anything approaching his established baseline will matter considerably for a Padres club managing a Wild Card race with a +3.0 margin — real, but not the kind of cushion that absorbs a prolonged offensive absence from a lineup cornerstone.

The road trip to Washington and then Philadelphia will be worth watching in that light. Citizens Bank Park has a way of clarifying things for power hitters, and Tuesday's projected matchup against Aaron Nola is the kind of outing that tends to generate useful information quickly. Whether Tatis adds to his new total on that trip is the sort of data point that will either reinforce the idea that the drought is genuinely over or leave the question open a little longer.

For now, CBS Sports reported what it reported: game 56, first home run of 2025, career average of 24 per year. The Padres hold the top Wild Card spot and a two-game winning streak. The math on what the rest of the season looks like is left, as it should be, to the remaining games.